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Retirement backlog continues to drop as fewer feds file to retire

By
Jack Moore

For the fourth month in a row, fewer federal employees than expected put in for
retirement in October, allowing the Office of Personnel Management to continue
cutting a longstanding backlog of claims.

In October, approximately 7,500 employees — about 1,000 fewer than expected
— filed for retirement, according to new OPM data.

Despite processing more cases in October than in any month since April —
11,027 claims — OPM still fell short of its processing goal, which ramped up
last month. Under a revised
strategic plan rolled out this summer, OPM expected to clear 11,500 cases each
month beginning in October and spanning the next four months.

Still, OPM was able to shrink the overall inventory of backlogged claims by more
than 3,500. The backlog now stands at 14,176 cases — nearly 5,000 fewer
claims than OPM projected at this time.

All told, the backlog has shrunk by 65 percent this year since it peaked at 41,000
cases in February.

The number of federal retirements has been on the decline over the last six
months. In six of the last seven months, OPM has received fewer applications than
expected. Overall, though, the number of federal retirements is up about 10
percent year-to-date because of an upsurge of retirement
applications in the first three months of the year.

The 16-day government shutdown left OPM's Retirement Services division unscathed. The office is
funded by a special retirement trust fund, and employees were exempted from
furloughs.

However, the current budget uncertainty roiling the government could pose issues.

For three months earlier this year, OPM canceled overtime
for employees in the Retirement Services division due to the automatic
sequestration budget cuts. Strategic use of overtime had been a key driver in
OPM's efforts to reduce the backlog, and without it OPM was left treading water in
terms of further reducing the inventory.

A "year-end budget review" in August ended up freeing up enough cash to restore limited
overtime through October, according to OPM.

But federal agencies are currently operating under a stopgap funding measure and
there are deep divisions in Congress about whether and how to replace the
automatic cuts with an alternative deficit-cutting plan.